In various applications, network elements such as switches and routers are required to handle network traffic at high speeds. A network element may process packets for the purpose of packet forwarding and classification.
Methods for packet processing in a network element are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,754,662, describes a packet classification architecture that includes a cached hash table that stores a subset of classification identifiers for a plurality of data flows. A forwarding engine coupled to the cache receives packets and first attempts to classify the packet by generating a hash key based on header information from the packet, and using the hash key to lookup a corresponding entry in the hash table.